Council approves reallocation of Office of Community Solutions budget after staff redistribution

City Manager reported the Office of Community Solutions was closed effective July 1 and staff were reassigned across departments to better align functions. The council approved a resolution amending the FY 2026 budget ordinance to give the city manager authority to reallocate funds that had been appropriated to the Office of Community Solutions so those dollars follow reassigned staff into their new offices.

Manager said responsibilities moved as follows: a renamed Budget Office became the Office of Grants Management with additional staff; a housing division was created inside Neighborhood Development Services to consolidate housing work; economic development added a staff member focused on the Downtown Mall; and the city manager's office added a position to focus on planning, performance management and projects. The manager said the change does not increase total appropriations but reallocates about $1 million previously budgeted to the closed office into existing departmental budgets.

Council discussed whether the city had fully implemented a prior "redevelopment manager" vision and whether the new downtown mall strategy manager role covers those prior responsibilities; the manager said the original redevelopment manager role had not been fully deployed and multiple staff now touch on redevelopment functions. Council voted to approve the reallocation; recorded voice vote was 4–0 in favor.